In far away Bonn, Germany, Nigeria-born singer and composer, Ade Bantu, recently did his country proud by winning the 2007 edition of Adler Award. Bantu won in the Best African Media category thus gaining recognition for his numerous musical and political endeavours. His band was widely extolled for taking the lead in the ADLER Entrepreneurship Award, which aims at acknowledging the accomplishments of Africans in Europe and Africa.

When contacted on the prestigious award, Bantu, who has the dual parentage of Nigeria and Germany, said he was highly honoured in Europe through the award. He confessed to having been recognized by the African community in Europe, noting “ it shows I’ve been contributing my own little quota to the development of African culture.”

On how Africans relate to the European counterparts in Germany, Bantu said: “ Our community is a large one in Germany but we’ve not really been organized until recently when there came an aggressive approach to celebrate ourselves and know more about one another.” According to him, the German society has lately been feeling the impact of the black community particularly Nigerians. This is all because the black community has been organizing a series of cultural events to celebrate and promote African cultural heritage.

Speaking on his genre of music and how it has affected his audience, Bantu whose brand of Afrobeat is fondly called Fufu said: “I’m quite exotic in terms of my music. But because of the political content and the dignified manner in which I present it, the music is appealing to both Germans and the African audience. This is why the Germans classified me as a world artiste. For the Africans, they are rather proud to have a son who is both German and African and who is capable of using his art to promote Africans in a dignified manner.”

Bantu, who is expecting his second album recently, had a successful tour of Tanzania, where he featured as Nigeria-Germany artiste in one of the biggest cultural festivals in Africa. He described his performance in the 2008 Busara Music Festival as being culturally revealing and professionally rewarding.
He added that the Tanzanian media rated his performance high, describing it as one of the outstanding moments of the 2008 edition of the festival.

Before founding his 11-man band, Bantu & Afrobeat Academy, Bantu grew up in two different cultures-Lagos (Nigeria) and Cologne (Germany). This is why today he denotes himself as an ‘Afropean’. The clash of civilizations is reflected in his music which he tags: “ The sound of Fufu.” The music is a fancy…a mixture of Afrobeat, Hiphop and Funk and which picks up “ the impulses of current global music trends as well as the specific sounds of African music.”

In addition to these, Bantu’s double cultural inspiration is reflected in his lyrics such that political messages constitute an essential component of his music. All these are meant, according to him, to mobilize, motivate and encourage people in an optimistic manner.”
In 2005, Bantu received the prestigious Kora Award, which is classified as the Pan African equivalent of the Grammy Award.

Also his single No More No Vernacular was on top of the radio charts in Nigeria for about eight weeks thus indicating his wide acceptance in Africa.